Cloning Blues Brothers



The Cloning Blues Brothers are minor characters from the Kishin Douji Zenki series. They are six male demons that look like Zenki, but sport different palettes and possess different elements.

The Cloning Blues Brothers are exclusive to Kishin Douji Zenki 3 - Tenchi Meidou and loyal servants of Karuma. Their main profession ingame is to try to stop Zenki and his friends from foiling Karuma's plans.

While Gaira, Gaora, Haira, Karura, Kubira and Mekira don't exist outside Tenchi Meidou, there's a very good reason for it. It is the way the game starts out with the events from the manga and ends with an altered version of the Karuma ark from anime, which makes their very existence possible in this timeline, but impossible in any other timeline of the series.

Their origin mostly borrows Karuma's plan from Episode 23 of the anime, where Karuma tried to use a Hyouinomi to turn the captured Chibi Zenki into one of her servants. It also borrows from Volume 4 of the manga and Zenki's defeat at the hands of Hiki the Black Tortoise.

While Hiki himself doesn't appear ingame, Goki's introduction features a similar situation to the one from the manga as well.

The manga leaves it unclear what happened to Zenki's remains after his defeat at Hiki's hands. Once Zenki's soul has left his old body, Goki used the "Strategy of Resurrection" to revive him and Zenki now has a new body, everyone forgets about the broken remains of Zenki's old body.

While Episode 23 had Karuma trying to turn the living Chibi Zenki into her servant, she also mentioned that he would end up in a zombie-like state, implying that she doesn't necessary need a living Zenki to turn him into her servant.

As the Karuma ark happens at the very end of the game, this thus leads to Karuma's servants accidentally stumbling across Zenki's remains way back from the game's Inugami ark at some point. They decide to take them with them. As the remains are dead and can't fight back, Karuma can do anything she wants with them and being a powerful sorceress, she has at least one servant up her sleeve that can use some kind of necromancy.

Once the remains have been fused with six Hyouinomi and revived, the Cloning Blues Brothers are born. Now Karuma has her own, loyal Zenki clones.

Thus the Cloning Blues Brothers aren't just brothers, they are also clones of Zenki which are made from a genuine Demon God's remains, while technically also being Hyouijuu as their brains are Hyouinomi.

Final Stages of the Endgame
Over the course of the endgame, the Cloning Blues Brothers, who possess free will, just like the original Zenki, are freed from Karuma's mind control by Zenki and Chiaki and join them instead.

They accept Chiaki as their new master, which upsets Karuma, who orders Guren, Goura and the brainwashed Anju to kill Zenki, Chiaki and the brothers.

Ingame Behavior
Once the brothers are allied with Zenki and Chiaki, they can only be controlled indirectly via giving them commands. Their AI will then perform the action requested by Chiaki, which can be, for example, to search for items, to hold a postion or to seek out and fight enemies.

As the player has even access to Haira, who has earned the reputation of being the most powerful character in Tenchi Meidou, the enemies will try to take him out by using tile manipulation or weather effects in Board Game Mode. If Haira meets any enemy, he will instantly defeat them.

The other brothers are very powerful as well and will take out most foes, including Karuma herself, if they manage to get to them and encounter them in Battle Mode.

Gallery (all six brothers)
This little section features all six brothers and a short comparision of their threat levels. Check out the individual brothers' articles if you want to read more detailed information on the corresponding character.

Character traits


Gaira and Karura can use various elements and defense moves. They are able to use Om, but as they start out with 100 attack points, they aren't too dangerous unless they absorb to much attack points with the absorb card.

They like using four card combos, but while Gaira generally attacks at medium strength (he uses his ice elemental move), Karura goes all out by using a four card combo of his strongest offensive element. This causes him to catch his foe in a highly damaging fire whirl.



Gaora can use various kinds of attack and defense cards. He accounts this with his rather balanced fighting style.

He likes to use the earth element and he won't hesitate to use Om, once he reaches his maximum anmount of attack points. The latter would actually make him pretty dangerous, if it weren't for Gaora starting out with 80 attack points and rarely using absorb cards.

Despite this, be careful and don't underestimate him.



Haira and Mekira can only use Om, but they are especially dangerous as they start out with maxed out attack points.

Ironically, Mekira is very slow and attacks rarely, which makes him the least dangerous brother, while Haira is pretty much deadly if not taken down while on the board game map and should be avoided at all costs.



Kubira can use various elements and defense moves. He starts out with 70 attack points. Interestingly, Kubira stands out from the other Cloning Blues Brothers as just like Mekira, he acts very slowly, thus making him the second least dangerous brother.

Shared Moves and other Similarities
Physical attacks

All six brothers use the same moves for their physical attacks. Their one and two card single strikes have them punching their foe, while their three and four card combos have them extending their Clone Diamond Horn from their right elbow and bashing their foe with it.

Sprites and Colors

Being clones of Zenki, the Cloning Blues Brothers all use the same sprites, Zenki uses when being faced as an enemy, albeit with the aforementioned palette changes.

The brothers' Clone Diamond Horns always have the same color as their hair.

Trivia

 * As their official name is unknown, Semerone called them the Cloning Blues Brothers, which refers to them being Zenki clones and brothers
 * Their name is also a reference to the Super Mario Brothers and the Cloning Blues trope from TV Tropes
 * While the six brothers are exclusive to Tenchi Meidou, their origins are based on Tenchi Meidou's storyline which starts out with the events from the manga and ends with an altered version of the Karuma ark from the anime.